Today was a day of travel and Dr. appointments for Josiah and I.  He had to go to Ann Arbor Michigan to the University of Michigan to meet with specialists about the nerve damage that he has on the right side of his face. All I can say is that I am amazed at the favor of our God at every turn when it comes to the prognosis for my son. Again, with each person we met with today, we heard good news! Here is just a brief recap of what the day held:

• Ann Arbor is a 3 hour drive from where we are at here, so we started out on the road around 8AM.  He appointment was not until 12:30, but this gave us time to eat lunch and find where we were going.
• His first appointment was a hearing test.  The test confirmed what we already knew, which was that he had a moderate to severe loss of hearing in his right ear.  His hearing has improved though, and the Dr. said that there were good signs that he will still improve greatly with time.  For that we are thankful.  He has noticed his hearing coming back in that ear, so I just expect that it will continue.
• His next appointment was with a nerve specialist.  They did a test where they stuck a needle into the right side of his face in about 6-8 locations and then they would have him try and move a muscle in his face near the needle. Needless to say, this was not his favorite test! Again, there was great news to be shared.  The Dr. explained it like this: the nerve is not just a single “wire” but more like a cord of many wires.  Sometimes the damage can be severe to where the nerve is totally severed. That is not the case for Josiah.  Other times, just a few of the strands of the nerve are damaged or severed.  This is what they feel has happened to Josiah. The good news is that the damaged strands will grow back and heal.  In fact, they believe he will start to see improvement in as little as 8 weeks. At this point they say he will heal on his own and have no need for surgery.  This is exactly what we had been praying for!
• His last appointment was the surgeon that had been in contact with our Dr.s from the very beginning. He confirmed what the previous Dr. had told us about the nerve damage and took a look inside Josiah’s ear and did a bit to clean it up yet.  He still has some blood and gunk in there. He also sent Josiah for a CT scan just to see how far he has come in the last 2 months.  Again, another really good report and it was just as we had hoped for.

Josiah’s main healing now comes from his hard work and time. It will take some time for certain parts of his body to heal as they should. This is frustrating to him, but he realizes that he has to wait on his body. Please remember the following specific requests in prayer:

• Pray for him as he deals with the frustration that his body causes him on a daily basis.  He really is doing well, but he wants to be better now!
• Pray for his neurological-psych eval next week back up at Mary Free bed.  This will help determine when he gets to start being integrated back into the school system.
• Pray for his strength of body to continue to improve.  He still has some weaknesses and will be working hard on those areas in rehab.
• Pray for the ability to show the love of Jesus to people we meet.

Psalm 9:1 “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart and tell about the wonders you have worked.”